What is I-O?

Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is the scientific
study of the workplace. Rigor and methods of psychology are
applied to issues of critical relevance to business,
including talent management, coaching, assessment,
selection, training, organizational development,
performance, and work-life balance.

SIOP Membership Becomes More Valuable With Addition of SIOPâ€ˆResearch Access

SIOP members can now take advantage of a new service enabling them to access hundreds of journals, allowing them to stay current with best practices and research literature, President Adrienne Colella announced in November.

The service was initiated by the Professional Practice Committee, chaired by Rich Cober, senior director of talent management at Marriott International, and the SIOP Administrative Office. Negotiations with EBSCO, the world’s foremost premium research database service, led to offering SIOP members a service that includes three EBSCO databases as well as the SIOPâ€ˆLearning Center at a favorable rate.

Starting this spring, purchase of SIOPâ€ˆResearch Access packages will coincide with the SIOP dues schedule, which runs May 1 through April 30. The rate will be $50 annually.
For more information, go to www.siop.org/SRA/subscription.aspx.

Some members purchased the service right away when it was announced in November and paid a partial-year rate of $25, good through February 28.

“This is one of the most valuable member benefits ever offered to SIOP members,” said David Nershi, director of SIOP’s Administrative Office. “SIOP is continually looking to add greater value to our membership, and thanks to the efforts of the Professional Practices Committee, the SIOP Research Access Project is one more example of that.”
In addition to the SIOPâ€ˆLearning Center, members who purchase the package can access the following three available databases: Business Source Corporate (a list of available titles can be found at www.ebscohost.com/ titleLists/bch-journals.xls); Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/bch-journals.xls) and SocIndex (www.ebscohost.com/ titleLists/sih-coverage.xls)

The project started 3 years ago when the Professional Practice Committee surveyed SIOP practitioners and asked what services they would like to see SIOP offer. The overwhelming reply was access to current research literature found in professional journals.
The result was the SIOP Research Access project, which makes available to SIOP members presentations from recent conferences/consortia as well as some of the most sought after journals, including Personnel Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Organizational Behavior.

“Research databases have typically only been easily accessible by those working at universities,” said Professional Practice Committee member Tracy Kantrowitz, director of research and development of SHL in Atlanta.

“Making these databases available to SIOP practitioners helps bridge the scientist–practitioner gap by connecting practitioners with the latest research findings they can incorporate into their practice,” she added.

The SIOPâ€ˆLearning Center includes a selection of media from past conferences and Leading Edge consortia. Videos of past conference plenary sessions and Leading Edge presentations are of special interest. In the past, Learning Center subscriptions have been sold for $119. Early last year, a month-long pilot program enabled about 2,200 SIOP practitioners to test the EBSCO databases. A brief survey seeking feedback found that 91% of the 185 respondents were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the EBSCO products, and 78% indicted they would be willing to pay an additional fee to use the databases.

“This is a wonderful idea and a long time coming. I am already making use of the EBSCO databases. I hope you are able to sustain this arrangement as a member service benefit,” said Stephen Axelrad, an associate with Booz Allen & Hamilton in Arlington, VA.Tasha Eurich, director of leadership and OD at HealthOne/HCA in Denver, CO, said she “strongly believes that journal access is the single greatest offering SIOP can give its practitioners.”

Although the chief beneficiaries of the SIOPâ€ˆResearch Access project are practitioners, Cober said there may be some members at universities who might want to subscribe, although most universities have access to EBSCO products through their libraries.
He lauded the work of the committee and the Administrative Office in doing the groundwork that made this project possible. “We are excited that this project has come to fruition. Now, it is important that enough members subscribe to the research service to make the effort cost effective,” he said.

Cober estimated that about 600 subscriptions will be needed in order for SIOP to break even on the project. “We think the value this brings to the membership, both in terms of cost and availability of current literature, is something that will appeal to many SIOP members,” he added.